Test drive starting to sputter

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Adrian Gonzalez, the All-Star first baseman, is starting to swing at pitches he’d be hard-pressed to reach with an oar.

Kyle Blanks, the Opening Day cleanup hitter, is hitting .162 and striking out at a staggering .455 clip.

Everth Cabrera, the primary leadoff man, has scored one more run than has Kevin Correia, a pitcher.

Tony Gwynn the Younger, who continues to trail his dad by eight batting titles, has drifted down to .202.

If hitting is contagious, the San Diego Padres appear determined to develop baseball’s strongest immune system. To say their hold on first place is tenuous is like saying David Eckstein might have difficulty dunking on Kobe Bryant.

This is a ballclub due to start dropping.

Sunday’s 1-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep and confirmed that management’s emphasis is on long-term development rather than short-term results. For despite Blanks’ continuing and profound slump, despite the prevailing lousiness of their lineup and despite a National League West without a genuine juggernaut, the Padres continue to approach the 2010 campaign as a test-drive rather than as a race.

Meaning: expect more of the status quo or, if you prefer, the status woe.

“We had a very similar series in San Francisco,” General Manager Jed Hoyer said post-sweep Sunday afternoon. “We shut them down and won those three games and the Dodgers did the same thing to us — nothing to change the way we feel.

“We still feel like these are the guys we’re going to win with. I think it’s important to stay patient with these things. These ruts are inevitable over the course of a long season and this is our first three-game losing streak. I’m confident that these guys will turn it around and when it happens, it will happen all at once.”

If it does not happen until 2011 (or later), the Padres may be OK with that. Six weeks into their season, they remain committed to a course that never did run smooth; entrusting their fate to an inconsistent (arguably overmatched) young core while resisting the kind of patchwork players who might yield more predictable results.

Case in point: Pat Burrell. Two years removed from a 33-home run season with the Philadelphia Phillies, Burrell and his .202 batting average have been designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays. The Padres have indicated no interest.

Neither have they been tempted to make a meaningful run at free agent Jermaine Dye, who hit 27 homers last season in the service of the Chicago White Sox. Part of the difficulty with Dye relates to the length of his layoff, and the time it would take to get him game-ready. Another part, obviously, relates to his salary expectations.

Yet even if the fiscal issues could be surmounted, philosophical barriers would remain. Though fans generally prefer the quicker fix, it’s tough to nurture a young player who is constantly looking over his shoulder for a boarding pass to Portland. The question confronting Hoyer and manager Bud Black is how long to allow a Kyle Blanks to keep flailing at the big league level before showing confidence in him becomes counterproductive.